Let’s have a quick look at 5 of the common causes of a broken boiler.
It should let you know whether you can fix it yourself or need to get someone in to have a look.
- Leaky boiler - Call someone ASAP. Why? To stop the problem getting worse or more expensive. It could just be a loose pipe and be pretty cheap to fix, but we’d always advise to get someone in to fix the leak before the problem escalates.
- Faulty thermostat - Give your thermostat the once over to make sure it’s not causing you any issues. Trying to reset the thermostat is always the first port of call, and could be the reason why your hot water is absolutely fine - but your heating isn’t working. Lots of thermostats these days are battery powered, so it’s a good idea to replace the batteries and see if that does the trick. If that doesn’t work, give an engineer a call to come out and take a look.
- The pressure is too low - This is pretty common but is usually pretty easy to fix. These days, most boilers use something called a ‘filling loop’ and you just have open the valves. The little needle inside of the pressure gauge should begin to move up (towards the green section), and you just need to keep going until it reaches between 1/1.5. Once it does, close the valves and you’re good to go - no need for an engineer today!
- Cold radiators - If your radiators are turned on but are cold, or have cold patches, you might need to ‘bleed’ the radiator. It’s pretty straightforward, and usually sorts the problem out pretty quickly. All you need to do is grab your radiator key, open the valves and let the air out from inside your radiator. More often than not, this will do the job just fine.
- Dodgy pump/trapped air - Boilers can be pretty complicated - the inside of them are full of fun things like fuel jets and heat exchangers. Just like anything, the parts can wear down/become faulty after a while, especially if your boiler isn’t one of the newer models. A fault code will usually show when you’ve got a dodgy pump or if there’s trapped air inside your boiler, so keep an eye out for that. You might also hear some strange noises coming from the boiler too, and if that’s the case give an engineer a call to come and have a look at it for you.
Need some help?
There aren’t many things more annoying than a broken boiler on an already-freezing night in the winter. If you’ve tried to fix it yourself but aren’t having much luck, get in touch and we’ll get someone out to have a look as soon as we can. Affordable prices, qualified engineers working hard to get you back nice and warm in next to no time - MultiCerts are on hand whenever you need us. Book a boiler service here.
